Conference Highlights from the 2009 Distribution Management Conference & Technology Expo
HDMA’s 2009 Distribution Management Conference (DMC) and Technology Expo took place on March 15-17, 2009 in Baltimore, Maryland. Hundreds of distributors, manufacturers and service providers explored ways to apply relentless innovation to the healthcare supply chain, learned about the latest developments and emerging trends and networked with peers and trading partners.
On Monday, March 16, HDMA President and CEO John M. Gray officially opened the conference. He discussed the economic and budget realities driving the need for the healthcare reform and HDMA’s Healthcare Reform Principles. He addressed the need for a uniform pedigree standard as well as LIFO repeal, AMP-based reimbursement and ongoing work with the FDA and DEA. He also highlighted supply chain issues, such as identifying key drivers of returns, updating guidelines for barcode labeling and providing guidance for EDI usage between trading partners. Gray described the future of healthcare being full of challenges and opportunities, with collaboration being a critical requirement.
Keynote presentation by Kevin Ashton, CEO of uSENSO, on the importance
of relentless innovation in the healthcare supply chain.
The conference started with a keynote presentation by Kevin Ashton, CEO of uSENSO, on the importance of relentless innovation in the healthcare supply chain. Ashton noted that innovation happens from the bottom up—or not at all. Citing specific company examples, he demonstrated that, “during economic recession, relentless innovation is more relevant than ever before.” Addressing organizational resistance to change, Ashton reminded attendees that using familiar concepts and terms helps present new ideas in a familiar way, thus reducing opposition to innovation. Stating that, “HDMA members save lives, improve lives and extend lives,” he urged attendees to “not let the way you are organized now interfere with a better way of doing your business.”
Looking into the future, Ashton described a two-sided problem the healthcare supply chain must face. On one hand, high margin biologics require a complex supply chain; on the other, low margin generics use a simple, efficient supply chain. Finding a way to do both will be a challenge for the companies doing business in this field. Ashton anticipates that RFID and real-time energy monitoring techniques will be the most promising technologies for healthcare supply chain manufacturers, distributors and service providers in the near future.
The conference continued with nearly 20 concurrent business, policy and technology sessions that addressed such topics as an effective recall process, DEA updates, managing cold chain, waste management, enterprise risk management and more.
One session focused on the downstream perspective of managing an effective recall and withdrawal process, including operational considerations from distributor, hospital and independent pharmacy representatives. Brett Berty, Senior Strategist, Recalls and Returns with Stericycle, set the stage for the panel. Tom Renkey, Principal at TJR Consulting Services, discussed distributor considerations when notifying customers and executing a product recall. Bea Haupt, Program Manager with Inova Health System, described a variety of considerations for patient care from the hospital perspective. Angelo Voxacis, President and CEO of EPIC Pharmacies, offered an independent’s view on the challenges of meeting patient needs and reducing reconciliation time in the supply chain. Panelists provided potential solutions to improve the recall process, including designating recall contacts, providing complete and concise instructions, identifying the appropriate point of contact at the manufacturer level for product questions and at the customer level for product retrieval. The session also highlighted HDMA’s Recall and Withdrawal Notification Guidelines, which are available to HDMA members at no charge.
Bob Celeste, Director, GS1 Healthcare US, EPCglobal North America, led the session on GS1 and EPCglobal standards, explaining the need for international standards, a global synchronization network and 20-digit alphanumeric serial numbers. Celeste talked about ensuring printed barcode quality and making the current pedigree standard more efficient. He described three components of the emerging track-and-trace standards: reliable product description (GDSN), reliable location hierarchy (GLN registry) and reliable lookup service with appropriate authentication (Discovery Service). “The authentication part of the Discovery Services is critical,” he said. In a session on enabling track-and-trace with EPCIS, Paul Fowler, Vice President of Healthcare Strategies for Axway, Inc., underlined the need to embrace technology to succeed. “The part we forget about technology,” he said, “is that it is a cultural change—we need technology champions and policy changes.”
In the session on HDMA ICG guidelines for suspicious orders, panelists noted that over the past few years, pain medication prescriptions have increased, prescription drug abuse has grown and it has been easy to purchase prescriptions over the Internet. The industry has recognized its responsibility for performing customer due diligence. To support its members in these efforts, HDMA established a dialogue with the DEA and developed a set of Industry Compliance Guidelines (ICG), which DEA received favorably. The HDMA ICG guidelines help clarify how the industry may conduct due diligence in this critical area. The speakers summarized that the job of HDMA members is to monitor orders and maintain a secure supply chain while helping to ensure that patients who legitimately need controlled substances as part of their treatment are able to receive them.
Conference attendees at DMC.
The HDMA Factbook session highlighted the wide range of data included in the HDMA 2008-2009 Factbook. Attendees learned how to translate the Factbook data into essential business tools for benchmarking, teaching, support for company policies and expenditures and advocacy support. An overview of the specialty products market also was provided, along with an introduction of the Center for Healthcare Supply Chain Research’s upcoming publication, Specialty Pharmaceuticals: Facts, Figures and Trends. This session was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim. Session attendees also received a copy of the Factbook, courtesy of AmerisourceBergen Drug Company, Cardinal Health, Inc. and McKesson Supply Solutions.
Tuesday, March 17, began with the iBusiness Awards presentation. Please click here to a separate story for details.
The conference continued with a keynote presentation by Doug Long, Vice President, Industry Relations with IMS Health, entitled “What’s In, What’s Out, What’s Ahead: 2009 Healthcare Marketplace Trends.” Describing 2008-2009 healthcare market trends, Long pointed out that as a result of the slow economy, the 2008 marketplace showed 1 to 2 percent growth and U.S. prescriptions grew only 0.9 percent. Other trends included fewer contributions from the top 10 pharmaceutical corporations and low output from R&D and innovation.
According to Long, examples of channel growth in 2008 include chain stores, which grew 3.8 percent, and mail order, which grew 2 percent. Sales of generics have more than doubled since 2000 and the specialist-driven segment is the fastest growing at 7 percent.
Describing what lies ahead, Long indicated that the government would play an increased role. With the new Administration, much is still unknown, but the following issues are expected to be addressed: health coverage for the uninsured, legalizing drug importation and moving forward with legislation on generic biologics.
The conference concurrent sessions covered such issues as in-transit security, demand planning, state and federal pedigree update and more.
Speaking about state pedigree updates, HDMA’s Director of State Government Affairs Daniel Bellingham said that 28 states enacted some form of pedigree law between 2003 and 2009. He provided a chronological overview of pedigree issues and discussed current activities in the states. Bellingham said that states were beginning to incorporate e-pedigree preemption language allowing state pedigree requirements to be superseded by FDA standards. He pointed out that the current state-by-state approach led to a patchwork of pedigree standards, which continue to be inconsistent and contradictory. An overview specific to California’s pedigree requirements was presented by Sieglinde (Missy) Johnson, Senior Legislative Assistant, California Senate Business and Professions Committee. In addition, a federal pedigree update was presented by Allison Hite, Legislative Assistant, Representative Steve Buyer, U.S. House of Representatives; and Amy Muhlberg, Senior Health Policy Advisor, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Their presentation included the latest information on the status of draft federal legislation and a brief history on past activity regarding this issue on Capitol Hill.
Brian Cain and Steve Gran brought their six sigma and training experience to a practical session on demand planning and inventory classification. In a small group exercise during this interactive session, conference participants worked on a real-world application of inventory—52 weeks of invoiced sales—to analyze how to optimize sales and operations planning. They also discussed the challenges of aligning inventory purchases to match forecasting and demand.
The EDI session focused on high-level business uses of several EDI transaction sets, including the sales and inventory data exchanged in 852 and 867, the contract administration and chargeback data exchanged in 845, 844 and 849, and the increased amount of information that will be included in the forthcoming 180.
Speakers and attendees at the FDA Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) session discussed FDA’s new authority under FDAAA for establishing REMS and REMS elements, including a timetable for submission of assessments, MedGuides and patient inserts, communication plans and elements to assure safe use (EASU). An FDA REMS that was recently issued to a manufacturer was highlighted as a “case study” for what comprehensive REMS could entail. Participants agreed that it was important for distributors to interact with FDA and manufacturers and provide input on how EASU requirements may be simplified so as not to be unduly burdensome.
Participants at the Technology Expo.
On Wednesday, March 18, industry veteran Bob Dufour, COO of Blue Ocean Innovative Solutions, moderated the panel discussion, “A View from the Customer,” which addressed customer expectations, needs and challenges. The panelists were: Dave Fong, Senior Vice President, Pharmacy, Safeway, Inc.; John Foss, RPh, Director of Outpatient Pharmacy & Pharmacy Informatics, Memorial Health System; Debbie Garza, Divisional Vice President, Government and Community Relations, Walgreens; and Joe Lewis, Drug Diversion Control Officer, Parkland Hospital. They shared perspectives on how pharmacy practices might be affected by the new Administration in Washington and the current pedigree and track-and-trace standards. Panelists discussed the effect of the economic downturn on their practices, as well as patient compliance and security.
The conference closed with perspectives on the first 100 days of the new Presidential Administration by Howard Fineman, Senior Washington Correspondent and Political Columnist of Newsweek. Fineman talked about the transition from campaigning to governing, and balancing party politics and competing priorities, including energy and healthcare.
All presentations from the 2009 DMC and Technology Expo are available to the registered attendees. Please click here.
HDMA would like to thank all the supporters of the HDMA 2009 DMC & Technology Expo: Astellas, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cardinal Health, Covident, Eisai, Forest, Fougera, IBM, Otsuka, Pfizer, Purdue and Stericycle.
HDMA also would like to thank the HDMA 2009 DMC & Technology Expo Advisory Board for their time and commitment:
Joseph C. Fatigante
Warehouse Manager
Value Drug Company Keith Fromelt
Director, Customer Service
Ortho-McNeil Janssen
Pharmaceutical Services Mark A. Hartman
Senior Vice President, Supply Chain,
Integrity and Regulatory Operations,
Cardinal Health, Inc. Roger P. Maffia
Director, Trade
Allergan, Inc. Rock Magnotta
Senior National Director, Trade Sales
Astellas Pharma US, Inc. |
Steve Mays
Senior Director,
Corporate Security & Regulatory Affairs
AmerisourceBergen Drug Company Andrew Meyer
RFID Project Manager
N.C. Mutual Wholesale Drug Co. Mark Miller
Vice President, Procurement Services
McKesson Corporation Mark Ramsey
Senior Vice President, Supply Chain
Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. Allyson Vander Broek
National Account Director,
Strategic Channel Development
Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals |
For more information, please contact:
Registration and Exhibits: Vicki Lindberg, Manager, Meetings & Education, (703) 885-0280.
Business Program: Tirza Niemann, Director, Meetings & Education, (703) 885-0230.
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